Chapter 41: Asian supermarket

Chapter 41: Asian supermarket

Translated by me, edited by Kai.

“Um, this is also a deagle, .50 caliber, but special edition.” The attendant replied.

A normal .50 caliber desert eagle has a full body length of 270mm, with a barrel length of 250mm. However this special versions barrel is extended, almost like those super large pistols in films. That awe-inspiring feeling when you hold it is incomprehensible. Of course, with increased barrel length comes increased muzzle velocity, which leads to extra recoil; but Jiang Hai pays it no mind.

“Yes, now let me try this baby out in the back!” Jiang Hai said full of excitement as he held the gun in his hands.

“Uhhhh, alright…..” Seeing Jiang Hai’s excitement, the attendant nodded after some hesitation, he can always wear some protective gear if needed.

However Jiang Hai clearly has no interest in continuing this line of conversation, as having finished selecting his pistol, he went on to pick out his rifle. There are two major types here, the assault rifle such as the legendary M16, AUG, AK and so in. But the only ones sold here are the semi automatic ones, where each shot requires a separate press of the trigger. The other type is the sniper rifle, stuff like the AWP and Barrettes. However the clip size of all rifles have been restricted by the government to contain only 5 bullets. Of course 30 bullet magazines also exist on the black market, but the price of those are even more expensive than guns.

As such, Jiang Hai doesn’t have much interest in these guns. After some help from Robins, he settled with a remington M870P shotgun. This gun has a specific advantage as it can be used as a hunting gun with deer slugs. Apart from this, Jiang Hai also selected an Austrian Steyr AUG. Although it is somewhat expensive, it can function as a semi sniper rifle with its built in scope. These guns are ones that meet Jiang Hai’s requirements, he can change them anytime if he finds anything feels out of place during test shooting.

In America, most gun stores have their own shooting range in the back. However you still have to pay to use it; $2 for target sheets, 100 pistol rounds for $30, $10 to $20 for 100 rifle rounds though you can change guns anytime. Apart from these, you also need to rent the target slot. The store they are in right now is somewhat expensive with $30 per hour, in total with tips and everything, it comes down to $100 to test out the guns.

This is the first time Jiang Hai has ever fired any weapon, so first on the list is the AUG. As to not lose too much face by shooting wide, he decided to aim with the built in scope. Under the attendant’s careful instructions, he took at a very basic stance and aimed.

In a flash these bullets were already on their way towards the target. Under everyone’s astonishment, all 5 shots hit the target and left 5 separate marks. However these marks are made up of 3 8-rings and 2 7-rings, not even a single 9 ring.

“Uh, I’m so bad at this.” Said Jiang Hai as he put down the gun. Yet he has no clue how much of a scare he just gave everyone.

The attendant and Robins were both observing Jiang Hai when he fired. Due to the large recoil from the AUG, if something had happened to him, then that is another load of problems. However, none of them would’ve thought that the large recoil from the AUG did not affect him at all.

Seeing this, Robins can’t help but remember the time when they first went to buy groceries. It would seem that Jiang Hai’s strength is beyond normal understanding. Under that skinny ass frame lay a sleeping beast.

Having tried the AUG, Jiang Hai turned his attention to the remington. This gun is not like a rifle with it’s point and shoot style, rather it’s more like a blast; each shot covers a wide area. This type of gun is good when hunting, but it’s too far off to be used for regular use. It’s just like what Robins had previously said, it doesn’t matter if the gun has any use, just have it ready just in case.

Finally it is the special edition deagle’s turn. The recoil of this .50 caliber gun is really no joke. As such, the attendant will not let him try it without some protection. Hence with protection, Jiang Hai fired the gun to find the recoil to be 2 times higher than that of the AUG, but still within acceptable range. So he removed all the protection and continued. With a single handed he was not very accurate, and was a bit better with both hands, but it’s power is really uncomparable with the AUG.

Jiang Hai is actually pretty satisfied with this outcome. Thus he finally settled one these 3 guns, their kits, and enough bullets to last a while. In total, everything came down to roughly $20,000, and when they left they threw it all in the back of the 750.

“Alright let’s head back.” Robins said as they left the gun store.

Jiang Hai was about to agree with this, but he suddenly saw the shop in front of the gun store. This store is really a small convenience store but it’s different than most convenience stores due to the 4 chinese characters on it’s name board. Zhang’s family store.

“Chinese store?” Jiang Hai muttered stunned as he slowed down his pace.

“Hey Hai, what’s up?” Robins who has already gotten on the car asked with curiosity.

“Welcome, feel free to look around.” As soon as he entered, a voice sounded from the side. Hearing this broken english, Jiang Hai turned around and saw a young female cashier. From the looks, this girl seems to be of asian descent. Returning her greetings with a nod, Jiang Hai continued in and was surprised by all the stuff here.

“Lao gan ma. Spicy garlic sauce. Black bean sauce. Sweet bean sauce. This is really a small chinese supermarket. There is even some vegetables here, oh even northeastern rice as well. Em, that smell” Jiang Hai muttered as he shopping.

There really is a lot of stuff here, on top of that, most of the stuff are all authentic imports. After being here for almost a month, Jiang Hai is somewhat sick of eating sweet and sour stuff day in and day out. Sometimes he really wanted to have some mixed noodles, old Beijing style, but he has no clue how to make the sauce. It’s not like you can replace it with tomato sauce and hope it tastes authentic.

These were his thoughts in the morning, but now it turned into reality; this is really something to be happy about. Although the market has almost everything any chinese person might ask for, but the prices here were higher than expected. Almost every bottle here is worth a box back in China, but you can’t actually mail these stuff over. Hence without much thinking, Jiang Hai took a basket and filled it up with everything he needs. First 2 bottles of Lao gan ma, then 4 bottles of spicy garlic sauce, 4 bottles of black bean sauce, some hard to find soy sauce, vinegar and also a 5kg bag of good quality rice.

Originally, Northeast China didn’t produce rice, but beans and sorghum. However this all changed with the occupation by the Japanese Empire. They brought over rice and forced the people to farm them. After they lost and left, the northeast people kept the habit of farming rice. Due to the bitter coldness in winter, the ground here is not as overused as some areas in China. The soil here is fertile to the point where you can almost squeeze out oil from it. As a result, the rice there has high yields and a great taste. Originally, there were two regions that produced rice in the northeast, Liao province and Heilong province; but due to high levels of pollution in Liao province, Heilong province’s rice quickly overtook the sector of the market.

Among them is one of the best tasting rice in the world, it’s also what most people in Heilong province eat, the paddy flower rice. This type of rice is particularly fragrant with a unique texture and hence is extraordinarily delicious. This type of rice costs only 3 to 4 yuan a catty in Heilong province, but once transported south, it’s prices skyrocket. In Sichuan province this rice costs around 80 yuan for a 5 kg bag. If we go even further south, then it’s not rare to find a dozen yuan for a catty of this.

In America, the rice is also expensive. A 5 kg sack of rice cost $110. This isn’t selling rice anymore, but gold. This stuff is just too expensive. However Jiang Hai still bought a bag. Having purchased the rice and all the condiments, he next went to the vegetable section. To be fair most of the vegetables can also be bought in America, with the exception of some unusual ones. For example zhu sun mushroom, lion’s mane fungus, chinese yam and the likes are almost non existent in most western supermarkets.

Jiang Hai likes to eat meat, so he doesn’t care much about normal vegetables. However when he sees stuff like matsutake, his mouth can’t help but water. This type of mushroom is a specialty in Northeast China. They require special growing conditions, so they can’t be farmed, but only harvested from the wild.

Jiang Hai remembered when he was little, he didn’t like to eat mushrooms. But one time his grandparents got sick so he mom left to take care of them. As a result he was left with his dad at home. His dad back then cooked up some matsutake to eat and from then on he feel in love with all kinds of mushrooms.